What did you have to eat on Monday? I hope it was tasty, green and animal friendly ;)

I'm happy to say that the people of San Francisco and Washington DC are being encouraged to eat green every Monday! The city councils of both these US cities have decided to beef up their environmental stance, by cutting out the cow (and chicken, and pig... you get the idea), and promoting Meat Free Mondays.

The problem is that most people don't realise that eating meat is about as green as hunting wildlife in an SUV! If you've watched Meat the Truth then you know that raising livestock produces more greenhouse gases than all the world's transport combined. Not to mention being a major contributor to species extinction, scarcity of water and all sorts of pollution. I mean, run off fertilisers and excrement from animal industries was killing plenty of wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico well before BP botched things up. (ever heard of a dead zone?)

So it's exciting to see cities encouraging their citizens to eat for a healthier planet every Monday. San Fran and Washington join the Baltimore school system, the original Hard Rock Cafe (in London) and the Belgian city of Ghent in promoting a meat free day once a week to save the planet. Sydney City Council also gave the campaign a plug last year (fingers crossed they'll join these others in officially adopting the initiative).

UPDATE: And now Cape Town has become the first African city to promote a meat-free day each week as well. Yay!

So, what are you gonna have for dinner on Monday? I think I might try this vegan shepherd's pie :)

Hello Ladies!

The 'man your man could smell like' is now also the man your man could eat like. No idea what I'm talking about? This should help get you almost up to speed:

Former NFL footballer and star of the hilarious Old Spice ads, Isaiah Mustafa announced on Twitter last week that he has embarked on a vegan diet. Just when you thought he couldn't get any more manly...! Isaiah now joins the ranks of other vegetarian beefcakes such as Carl Lewis, Mac Danzig, Bill Pearl and Dennis Rodman, who have all done the animals (and themselves) a favour and ditched meat.

And the story gets all the more intriguing/amusing... in a flirty twitter/YouTube conversation between the Old Spice Man and Alyssa Milano (also a vegetarian), Alyssa has challenged the Old Spice Man to donate $100,000 to wildlife rescue in the Gulf of Mexico oil clean up. Fingers crossed he mans up to the challenge!

Here's hoping his new found fondness for animals also inspires him to urge Old Spice's parent company, Procter and Gamble to stop testing on animals. Meanwhile why don't you let them know that you think animal testing stinks.

And on that note, I'm off to eat like a man :)

I just learned that in Taiwan if a person wants to thank Buddha for granting a wish, they buy a stranger a vegetarian meal. It's not unusual for people to also do this just to gain peace of mind. Pretty cool huh?

Well, one mysterious stranger on a motorbike has gone one better than this (or should that be 9,999 better?). He handed over the equivalent of $17,000 to the owner of Taipei's Lotus Heart Vegetarian Restaurant, asked him to feed the public and rode off into the sunset! His peace of mind must be through the roof!

This is enough money for 10,000 vegetarian meals! Restaurant owner, Hsu Min-long, has already given free veg meals to low-income families and children from the local orphanage, but there is still so much money left that he will cook free veg meals from 11am to 9pm for eight consecutive Sundays!

What a fabulous idea from a person who must have the most peaceful mind in all of Taiwan now. I can't think of many more effective ways to spend a lazy 17 grand, than by having people taste for themselves how amazing veg food can be and maybe sticking with it for life!

But then, you don't need 17 grand to share great veg food with friends. So why not score some good karma for yourself by cooking up a veg feast for your friends?

Oh, how I wish that compassionate biker and best pal of Buddha would ride into Adelaide and share the love between Joy Discovery, Bliss Organic or Zenhouse Yum Cha so I could eat delicious veg food for free!

What would you do with a spare $17,000? Which restaurant do you wish the anonymous giver would visit?

So I just went out and saw a great movie. I didn't feel much like eating the popcorn though (I'll tell you why in a sec). Believe me, you MUST see Food, Inc. SO it's lucky that we've got 5 double passes to give away!

I don't think I need to tell you how cruel factory farms are. In fact, I'm sure you tell other people about this all the time. And no doubt you've come across at least one person who seemed not to care. Well, maybe they'd care if they knew they might literally be eating sh!t!

I've had the misfortune of visiting a feedlot. I saw how they pile up the dung in the middle of each pen to provide – get this – "enrichment for the cows"! Many of the cows I've seen in feedlots were caked in each others faeces from nose to tail, so it's really no surprise that some of that finds its stinky way into the meat people eat. I know... YUCK! It sounds like I'm making this up, I wish I was. But this is actually a reality! In fact, Food, Inc. features a 2 year old, who died after eating a hamburger infected with E.coli from traces of cow dung in the meat.

Oh yeah, the popcorn. I learnt today that if the massive amount of corn grown isn't used for livestock, it's used for nearly everything else. As high-fructose corn syrup, you can find it in cakes, cheese, yoghurt, Coca-Cola, bread, orange juice, even in batteries and charcoal. They grow too much corn, because of government subsidies and so they end up putting it in charcoal?!? Don't they realise there are people starving in Africa!? And here we all are wondering why people make corny puns, we can't help it - there's an excess of corn to go round!

Even if you've already made the healthy switch to being veg or vegan, there is still so much to learn about the food you consume. There are moments in this film that will have you throwing that popcorn at the screen in frustration, but it's an excellent film and well worth checking out!

If you care about animals, people, the environment or yourself, this film is a must see. And here's how you could WIN a free double pass: Leave a comment below to tell us what makes you hungry for change and you could win! The competition ends next Monday (31/05/10), so be quick if you don't want to miss out!

UPDATE: Congrats to the winners who each get a double pass to see this amazing movie. Well done to sarahwithanh27, Carly, Sammy, Sabavana and Nikkikats. Enjoy watching Food, Inc. (with or without the popcorn)!

I don't know about you but I've always steered clear of 'shoot em up' computer games. Especially ones that glorify killing innocent animals like in Big Buck Hunter. There's one of them at my local pizza place. Nothing turns me off more than seeing someone order a meatlovers pizza before putting a dollar in that gory hunting game to simulate slaughtering deer while they wait for their factory farmed ham to cook on a doughy base. It doesn't make you look tough, boys.

So you can imagine my sheer delight when I met …Tofu Hunter!!

You can only progress through this game by meeting your tofu quota, that's a lesson for life I say! Nabbing the soy milk buys you extra time and you get bonuses for seeking out tofu dogs and seitan birds. Who needs a dietician with messages like this from tofu hunters?

Via AdultSwim

It's definitely a 'shoot em up' game, but to me it does represent something more. Because each time someone hunts out the tofu or veggie dogs in the supermarket and buys that over meat, it's a little step closer to ending the misery of animals who are confined for life on factory farms.

And as for my local pizza place, imagine someone ordering a vegie pizza then shooting tofu while they wait …let me hear you ladies, now that's manly!! Give me a Tofu Hunter any day!

Let's see who can get the highest score!

So, you may have seen in the news that Australia is lifting its ban on beef imports from mad-cow countries. Let me tell you why this makes me mad:

Mad-cow disease is an illness affecting cattle - caused by feeding cows to cows. Nasty stuff!

But it gets even nastier! If humans eat this infected meat, it can cause the fatal disease, called Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (you know with a name that long it's gotta be bad!). Sure, these countries claim to have the all clear from mad-cow disease now, but any country that used to feed cows to cows doesn't sound like a smart place to import beef from (not that killing cows sounds like a good idea to begin with). Anyway, while turning cows into cannibals before eating them sounds pretty mad, we've got some home-grown nastiness to worry about - a not-so-little thing called factory farming.

Packing animals into overcrowded sheds, where they may have to live in their own filth without fresh air, natural light or exercise is bound to make them sick. So animals in factory farms are often fed a diet of antibiotics just to keep them alive long enough to be killed. The problem with this? Viruses evolve and antibiotics don't. Factory farms are the perfect breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant super bugs. That's right; diseases not even modern medicine can cure - *cough* Bird Flu *cough* Swine Flu *cough*

And while it's gross - what goes in must come out. The major problem: The huge amount of waste produced by factory farms is not treated, like human waste is. In the case of pigs, it is channelled into massive, open-air cesspits. These "lagoons" (as the industry calls them) can pollute the soil and underground water supplies, and run-off can wreak havock on local waterways - not to mention the health risks to the local community!

But, no need to worry! Like a wizard, I have the perfect solution for you! And while you're at it, you'll be helping heaps of others in a big way. What is it, I hear you chanting? What do I have to do? What must I eat? No, no, no! It's much simpler than that! It's what you don't have to eat - animals!

Not eating animals reduces your risk of getting heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. Don't eat animals - get a longer life expectancy - it's that easy! Your Mum's been telling you to eat your vegetables forever, so what better way to make her happy?

Sound good? Great! Then click here to take the pledge to be veg and give the cows one less reason to be mad ;)

So the Winter Olympics are coming to a close. I don't know about you, but I keep watching The Games thinking how much fun it would be to try some of those sports out. I think I've decided the skeleton is for me :-P

Anyway, with one very impressive run down the halfpipe and a gold medal around her neck, Torah Bright has become a household name. Not to mention scoring herself a place on a stamp. Top marks to her.

But I wanted to take a moment to tip my hat to the girl who won the silver medal in the halfpipe, Hannah Teter. This warm-hearted winter Olympian is a passionate vegetarian, and has said: “My plant-based diet has opened up more doors to being an athlete. It’s a whole other level that I’m elevating to. I stopped eating animals about a year ago, and it’s a new life. I feel like a new person, a new athlete.”

And for this veggie powered athlete her compassion doesn't stop at her plate. When she's not busting out 360's on the halfpipe Hannah is busy endorsing eco-friendly sponsors, raising funds to help homeless AIDS victims in Kenya, donating her prize money to the Haiti relief appeal, and speaking out against the Canadian seal slaughter.

Way to go Hannah! I may not have a gold medal to give you, but you definitely deserve a gold star for your efforts.

Some time back, the UN released a very revealing report that revealingly revealed that our habit of eating meat is contributing more to global warming than all the world's trains, planes and automobiles combined. Yep – they say a whopping 18 percent of all the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock.

It seems that back home our pollies might have missed this memo. While other countries are looking at ways to ween their citizens off meat, yesterday our Federal opposition spokesperson for agriculture (that is, the guy who's supposed to know a lot about agriculture), said he reckoned that killing all the feral camels in Australia would be a great way to help save the planet. WTF!?

He says that shooting one million of these unfortunate animals would be like taking 3 percent of Australia's cars off the road. That left me wondering which animals will need to be taken out next to curb the other 97%?

*facepalm*

Anyone who hasn't been asleep for the past five years knows that you don't have to shed blood to save the planet. I know it. The UN knows it. Even Al Gore knows it now. I mean -- just eat the tofu burger and nobody has to die (in fact, we'll all probably live a little bit longer)!

What a bloody mess… :(

If you could tell Mr Cobb what you think of his bloody plan to "save the environment", what would you say? Wait! You can! John.Cobb.MP@aph.gov.au

This just in! Al Gore (a.k.a. “Mr Global Warming” himself) has finally confronted the biggest inconvenient truth of all: that meat-eating is responsible for much of the world's most devastating environmental problems: "It's absolutely correct that the growing meat intensity of diets around the world is one of the issues connected to this global crisis - not only because of the CO2 involved, but also because of the water consumed in the process … You could add in the health consequences as well".

It's obvious when you think about it, isn't it? When you need to feed about 10 kilos of food to a cow just to produce merely one kilogram of ‘beef' (and let's not forget the millions of methane-producing burps and farts let off by the global cattle herd every single day), eating green to save the environment is a no-brainer.

Strangely it took the world's most renowned environmental campaigner three years since producing “An Inconvenient Truth” to realise that you can't be a meat-eating environmentalist. And for some reason, Gore stops short of leaving all animals off his plate, saying that he has now “cut back sharply”. A good step in the right direction for sure, but I guess those of us who care more about animals and the planet than the taste of dead flesh will still need to offset Gore by eating green every day (and really, with food this good – who wouldn't want to!?)

No doubt Gore's new appreciation for environmentally sustainable foods will also help his waste line and keep him campaigning a good few years longer :)

And on that note, Yahoo! News wants to know if you'd go veg to help save the planet. Please vote yes!

Don’t you wish you had a captive audience to discuss cruelty free living with? I know I do! If you’re still in shool, then you’re lucky enough to have that captive audience every time you do a class presentation. (And I can’t say I’m not a little jealous!)

I recently had the pleasure of reminiscing on my school days when I was asked to do a talk at a school in Caroline Springs. Hayley Walker an awesome year 11 student organised to do a presentation to her class about the treatment of animals and why she is vegan. Not only did she have good props (like our Darren Cordeux video on factory farming and a battery cage), but Hayley and her mother spent the Sunday afternoon beforehand cooking up loads of vegan food that she could bring in to class.

I met Hayley a few years ago whilst tabling at the Taste of Chaos concert in Melbourne and I handed her a leaflet and wrote "Be cool, go veg." And she did! Two years later she is a star activist, who is talking to her class about the treatment of animals, and handing out lots of delicious vegan food (including felafels, chocolate mousse, jelly, cupcakes with oreo frosting, rice paper rolls, etc).

As someone who has to do a lot of public speaking, it's easy to forget how hard it is to take that first step. So you can see why Hayley deserves to be in my hero's section on myspace for bravely standing up in front of her whole class, and talking about society's treatment of animals.

If you’re still in school, then make the most of class presentations and inform your classmates about something you care about. As school is a learning environment, it’s an ideal place to do such a talk, and like Hayley, show people how great the alternatives to eating animals are. Looking back on how great her presentation was, I wish that I had used my time at school more effectively to help animals. When I was walking out of the school, I asked Hayley "What's next on your agenda?" and she said "Veganising my canteen." Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

If you're planning a talk at your school and have questions, send us an email. We’re always happy to help! Or if you want it straight from the horse's mouth (so to speak), send Hayley a message and ask her a few questions about what she did to organise the talk. No doubt you’ll get good grades if you’re speaking about something you know and care about and who knows you might even score some kudos on the Unleashed blog!

Have you done any school presentations on animal issues? How did it go? Have you got any tips for others? Leave a comment below…

While saving animals doesn't often appear at the top of governments' agendas, it is starting to sneak in by way of "Green Living"! In a recent newsletter from Sydney City Council I noticed they are promoting Meat Free Mondays.

Meat Free Mondays is a global campaign encouraging people to help curb climate change by having at least one meat-free day per week. If you think this sounds like a great idea, then you're in good company! The campaign already has the support of Paul McCartney, Richard Branson, Moby and the head of the International Panel on Climate Change (ie. the guy who advises the UN on all things climatey).

Governments promoting vegetarianism really makes me all goose-pimply with excitement. And this story gets better! Cause Sydney's not the only city either. In May, the Belgian city of Ghent launched a brilliant initiative to urge the whole city to go vegetarian every Thursday.

If you think Sydney Council is on a winning idea, then why not write to your school/uni/workplace to encourage them to combat climate change too and adopt Meat Free Mondays. Just think of the lives saved if they do!

So whenever you go shopping to stock up on mouth-watering cruelty-free food, do you spend more time than you'd like trying to ignore the icky meat, egg, and dairy-laden products that clutter the supermarket shelves in your quest to find those delightful dairy-free chocolate bars, meat-free mince and eggless mayonnaise? I know I do, especially when I visit a new supermarket that I don't know very well!

Don't you just wish shops would stick big, eye-catching signs up quickly drawing your attention to all the amazing vegetarian and vegan goodies that they sell? Well, one supermarket in Adelaide has done just that! Yep, apparently Foodworks in Glenelg have figured out that more and more people are wanting to fill their shopping trolleys without contributing to animal cruelty and environmental destruction and so they have posted big signs directing shoppers to the amazing cruelty-free food that they stock. Woot!!

Tofutti cheese, pig-friendly 'bacon', meat-free schnitzels, vegan whipped cream, vegetarian 'prawns', to-die-for dairy-free icecream ... yum!! :-) If you're in Adelaide make sure you check this place out on Jetty Rd, Glenelg. And if not, post a comment below and tell everyone where your favourite veg-friendly shop is!

There are around 14 million egg-laying hens in Australia. That's a lot of birds! ... and all of them are female. So have you ever wondered what happened to all the males?

Male chicks can't produce eggs ... so the egg industry doesn't want them. They don't grow fast or large enough to be profitable to be raised for meat, so ... what then?

Well a new investigation by US based group, Mercy for Animals exposes the dirty little secret the egg industry doesn't want you to know. Brace yourself, cause the answer isn't pretty...

You might hope that Australian standards would be better. But sadly that's not the case. Every year, the Australian egg industry grinds up alive or gasses to death an estimated 10 million male chicks. For these animals their first day in the world is also their last. They are picked up roughly by their fragile wings, tossed into disposal chutes and hauled off to their death.

Sounds more like a horror movie than reality, doesn't it. But sadly this is not only a reality, it's legal and is standard practice in Australia across all egg laying systems.

So what can you do about it? Well for starters you can cast your vote with your plate, simply don't eat eggs! And please join me in letting the Australian Egg Corporation know that you won't support their appalling disregard for animal welfare.

So if you're like many Australian families, you may well have a copy of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet (as my parents do). This 240 page book could have easily been summarised in one word – "meat" because that's pretty much the main ingredient in every meal.

But what you may not know is that CSIRO scientists (the good guys) discovered that high meat consumption is linked with bowel cancer and presented this to the CSIRO board (bad guys) in April 2006. Yet in October 2006 the CSIRO ran a second print of their bestselling book, despite the fact the book claimed "Studies have shown that fresh red meat (beef and lamb) is not a significant risk factor for colorectal cancer." LIES! So basically the book was reprinted and continues to be sold despite containing completely misleading information about the risks of cancer and meat. Not to mention the fact it promotes a diet that is extremely harmful to the environment!

Thankfully there is a good bloke out there by the name of Geoff Russell making sure that this blatant spread of misinformation does not go unheard, and he's written his own book: CSIRO Perfidy. Now I'll be honest, I didn't know the definition of 'perfidy' before I heard about this book, but when you read the definition, you'll see that there's no better word to describe the actions of the CSIRO.

Perfidy: –noun, 1. deliberate breach of faith or trust; faithlessness; treachery: perfidy that goes unpunished.

So the good news is you can pick up a copy of CSIRO Perfidy from the Unleashed store. I recommend anyone whose parents have a copy of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet to buy a copy of this book for them, to give them the full story. As Professor Peter Singer (Philosopher, Author of Animal Liberation, Hero) said "Read this book: it may save your life. And if enough people read it, it just might save the planet.''

What was in your lunch box today? How would veggie pizza with whole grain crust, rice and beans, veggie subs, and lentil sauce with pasta sound for lunch? According to the US School Nutrition Association that's the veg options that are most popular at US schools. I'll have one of each thanks!

Their recent survey found that almost 2 out of 3 US schools have regular veg options on offer. I don't know about you but my school tuckshop had mostly meat pies, sausage rolls and sweets (ok! so you won't hear me complaining about sweets :P).

It's about time we had more veg options in schools here as well! And it seems I'm not the only one who thinks so. The World Cancer Research Fund is now urging parents not to pack their kids' lunchboxes with ham and other processed meats. This follows a report by them earlier this year in which they concluded: "The scientific evidence linking processed meat [ie. ham, bacon, salami, etc] and bowel cancer shows that the best amount to eat is none at all." Go WCRF!

What's your school's veg tuckshop selection like? Might be a good time to suggest they add a few more options!

There are heaps of reasons not to eat chicken – for your health, for the environment or for the animals. For me, the fact that chicks are forced to grow much faster than their bodies can cope, with some dying from organ failure and others starving to death, unable to lift their own body weight, was always reason enough not to eat them. But now I think this one takes the cake...

Number one reason not to eat chicken: Because your housemate might just douse you in boiling oil!

Yep, the Herald Sun has reported that a dispute over Nando's chicken has ended in a man having boiling oil poured over him in his sleep. Sure, I'd be pretty annoyed if you ate all of my delicious mock chicken, but as far as I’m concerned violence has no place on or off my plate.

So anyway, what vegan treat do you find so delicious it’s just impossible to share?

It was only a matter of time – raising animals for food in filthy overcrowded sheds was bound to come and bite us in the backside, but when Swine Flu broke out in Mexico we didn't expect to see it in Australia any time soon. And before we knew it, we became one of the nations with the greatest swine flu count per capita. And now it's been found on a factory farm in NSW – the very place it originated (ie. a factory farm in Mexico).

Pork representatives are trying to convince us that it's still safe to eat pig products, but really, was it ever safe?!

• If you ask the World Cancer Research Fund: "The scientific evidence linking processed meat [ie. ham, bacon, salami, etc] and bowel cancer shows that the best amount to eat is none at all."
• Eating pigs is not only dangerous for our health, but the conditions they are raised in (confined in cages surrounded by their own waste products) is just a breeding ground for disease – a disaster waiting to happen.
• Anyway, who's the one telling us it's safe? It's the Australian Pork Industry (surprise!) – the same people who make a buck off selling it. I kind of see it like a thief telling you it's safe to leave your bag with him.

Personally, I'm content to chow down on my FLT (facon, lettuce and tomato sandwich) and leave the pigs in peace.

Ever wondered what the Terminator might have for breakfast before a hard day out .. um .. terminating? Well wonder no more! The peaceable folk over at the Pentagon have assured us all that their latest military robot is a vegetarian. This announcement came after rumours that their self-sufficient robot may eat human corpses.

"We completely understand the public's concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission," said Harry Schoell, the chief executive of Cyclone Power Technologies - one of the companies behind the machine. Phew! I'll sleep a little easier tonight, knowing we don't have to also worry about robots with a taste for flesh.

Dr Finkelstein (no joke that's his name) of Robotic Technology Inc. - another of the companies working on the project - explained that EATR (aka Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot) has in-built sensors to determine if something is animal, vegetable or mineral. The robot's diet mainly consists of bark, twigs and other plant matter.

As admirable as vegetarian war machines may be (not), I'm personally more impressed by these super strength vegetarians.

Well I think I speak for everybody when I say that I'm pretty peeved off with all the deceptive advertising that goes in to promoting animal products, although Meat and Livestock Australia take the crown for their new dodgy ad with Sam Neill.

In the new ad Sam explains to his orang-utan friend Dennis the supposed importance of eating red meat to make your brain evolve. I highly doubt that Einstein, Da Vinci or Pythagoras – all vegetarians – would agree with Sam on this one. In fact about the most intelligent thing Sam does in the whole ad is dance like a fool.

Who wants to move to Belgium? I have to admit the thought crossed my mind when I heard that last month the Belgian city of Ghent declared Thursday a vegetarian day for the entire city!

In an effort to combat the impact of the livestock industry on global warming, the city has invited its 230,000 inhabitants to help the planet by eating green every Thursday. The city will be providing free veggie lunch snacks, vegetarian cooking classes and general info on healthy eating. And best of all they will be distributing 90,000 free veggie street maps to guide people to Ghent's vegetarian restaurants. Woo!

According to the UN the livestock industry is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions. That's more than all the planes, trains and automobiles in the world combined! To me, that sounds like reason enough to join Ghent in making Thursday (and every other day) a vegetarian day.

If you think Ghent are on a winning idea you might want to write to your local council and suggest they follow Ghent's lead.

Have you been desperately wanting to make a difference and help animals but been too strapped for cash to donate? Well here’s your chance to help!

If you haven’t already seen, NextStop is donating $10 to Animals Australia every time a guide is posted in "Great Spots for Vegetarians & Vegans - Australia"

This doesn’t just have to be a restaurant; it can be a store, market, café… ANY place that is vegetarian/vegan friendly that you love. Surely everyone can think of 5 little places they’ve been to that fit this category!?!

This is turning into such a great resource, I know I’m going to be checking out a lot of the places I didn’t know existed. So take 5 minutes to spread the word about hot vego spots in your town and help us kick ass for the animals!

Thanks so much to everyone who has already posted a guide, we have raised $300 so far!!! Just 20 more guides needed to reach the $500 goal!!!

So over the past few weeks we have been warned of the deadly outbreak of "Swine Flu" in Mexico that is now spreading around the world. There has been much debate about whether we are treating the pandemic too seriously or not seriously enough, and more importantly whether it really came from pigs and if pork is safe to eat. The name was even officially changed from “Swine Flu” to “Influenza A (H1N1)” to try and re-assure consumers that eating pig products is safe. But if you are like me and countless others who have been writing to newspapers and reading up on the situation, I bet you've been remembering the panic when bird flu broke out and thinking "when will they get it, factory farming is a recipe for disaster!"

Where the Swine Flu outbreak started, in Mexico, is just 5 miles from an "industrial pig facility" which "processes" close to a million pigs a year and is jointly owned by the world's largest pig "processor", Smithfield Foods (Isn't it ridiculous that these places are referred to as "facilities" rather than "farms", why don't they just be totally honest and call them prisons?) (you can take a tour of this 'facility' with Sharon Churcher, here). Smithfield Foods says the outbreak was not a result of its facility and that none of its pigs have the virus. But Smithfield Foods have less than a splendid track record with hygiene and honesty.

Whether or not this particular facility was responsible for this outbreak, the question has to be asked, how can factory farms NOT inevitably spread disease?

There are hundreds of millions of pigs and chickens crammed in unnatural, stressful environments in these "facilities" all over the world. They are often fed antibiotics in their food to stop them from getting sick in these breading grounds for disease called factory farms. Frequent use of anti-biotics is KNOWN to result in super-bugs that become resistant to the drugs. The huge amounts of waste they produce is not treated the way human waste is, it is instead channeled into huge open-air ses-pits, or as the "facilities" like to refer to them, "lagoons". These lagoons attract large swarms of flies that feed off the untreated waste and then may fly to local communities. And of course, the health of communities living near factory farms can also be seriously affected (as a great report called the PEW Report discusses).

With all the warning signs - the hideous animal cruelty, the previous pandemic scares and the devastating environmental toll - we have every reason to be worried of a disease outbreak. And yet people are still encouraged to chow down on their pork chops and chicken nuggets. It seems we are too scared to face the awful predicament we have gotten ourselves (and the animals) into with factory farming.

I think Raph Brous summed it up pretty well in the Sydney Morning herald,

"Swine flu is a result of the inhumanity practiced by pig farmers who prioritise profits over animal welfare. People who eat pork products ignore that the pig industry severely harms the environment and the pigs.

"How sadly ironic that as humans abuse animals, forcing thousands of pigs and poultry into squalid factory farms, their viruses combine and evolve into new strains that teach us a deadly lesson about the everyday abuse of animals to satisfy human greed."

I think I've just found my new favourite cartoon! This brilliant illustration was sent to us by the insightful and very talented Donn Pattenden (thanks Donn!).

This is one issue that really stirs me up. The meat and dairy industries are huge water guzzlers. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that one glass of milk takes roughly 200 litres of water to produce. That's almost 3 days worth of showers! But that's nothing compared to the 100,000 litres of water that David Pimentel, a water resource specialist, says is required to produce just 1 kilo of beef!

In a country as dry as Australia, this sort of squandering of water just doesn't make sense. I live in Brisbane, where water shortages are a real threat (just like many of our other cities). We've been told to keep our domestic water usage below 140L of water per person per day...

I'm all for water conservation at home. In fact, we've just installed a new rain water tank :-) ... but when 70% of global water usage is for agriculture, it seems like what we eat and drink would be a smart place for us to start looking at how we can save water.

Well, almost.

In a recent press release, the Australian Chicken Meat Federation made a gutsy move in admitting what we all already know: meat stinks for the environment. They say: "if we are to avoid a food and environmental crisis, we must improve the efficiency of grain use for meat production or simply eat less of all types of meat."

Perhaps they read the UN's Livestock's Long Shadow report which reveals that meat production is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's planes, trains, and automobiles combined!

Despite this momentary glimpse of clarity, ACMF attempts to suggest that the solution is not to save the planet (and our struggling health system) by adopting a healthier, vegetarian diet—but to eat more birds! Clearly one saturated-fat-laden-chicken-wing-too-many has clogged vital blood vessels to the brain of the exec who thought up that brilliant idea.

While it might be true that raising pigs, cows and sheep are even worse for the planet than chickens, the poultry industry is still responsible for massive amounts of damaging pollution that is wreaking havoc on the environment. Incidentally, a key reason for the difference between the ecological footprint of raising chickens and other animals is that Australia's meat chickens have been bred to grow so unnaturally fast that they are just 6-week-old babies—many of which suffer heart conditions and lameness—when they are killed for their flesh. This cruel system is something the chicken industry likes to euphemistically call 'food conversion efficiency'.

So, as the Australian Chicken Meat Federation says, eat less of all types of meat. But really, when it's so easy to save 100 lives every year, why not dump meat all together?

This is the coolest thing I've seen all week! If you're like me and think it's pretty cool to have a planet to live on (and want to keep it), and you dig animation, then check out Animal Planet's new tips to protect animals (and the planet)...

And while you're at it, send them a thank you email to let them know how fantastic they are for encouraging people to eat less meat. There's no better way to save the planet, so kudos to them for speaking up!

p.s. If anyone out there has animation skills to offer up, drop me a line. We can always put you to work to kick ass for animals.

I have to admit, I have a real soft spot for good spoken word. There's something awe inspiring in seeing a room full of people transfixed by words. And Saul Williams takes the cake for razor sharp lyrics with a political bite (check out any of his performances on youtube and you'll see what I mean). There's an intense passion behind his genre-leaping mix of performance poetry, underground hip-hop, rock, drum and bass and anything else that takes his fancy.

Speaking out on everything from workers' rights to the environment to the war in Iraq, Saul's music and activism meld seamlessly. His poetry inspires action and his actions inspire. With lyrical gems like "Quit rhyming about being hardcore. Be heart-core. What else is life worth living for?" how can anyone not dig his music and his message? And to top it off he's vegan!

I recently stumbled across an email Saul sent to his fans and thought I'd share a few of his insights with you all. Saul talks in big ideas and, being a poet, can write like words are going out of style. But his message is worth the read.

Martin Luther King said "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." If you ask me, Saul Williams is definitely alive and kicking. I hope you are too! Anyway, enough babble, here's what the man had to say:

"A story was recently recounted to me of a popular TV chef who chose to raise little piglets on his show to insure that they were fed organic food and not injected with chemicals (as is the practice on most factory farms), all for the sake of fattening them up for their slaughter and another primetime recipe. Yet, the time that this chef spent with these pigs taught him a valuable lesson (more valuable for the pigs, no doubt). What he learned was how intelligent pigs are. In fact, in recent times, it is common knowledge for most that pigs are arguably more intelligent than “mans best friend” and companion, the dog. For our chef, this meant switching gears and realizing that he could not consciously kill this intelligent animal, that it would constitute a murder as brutal as slicing your fluffy pets neck and watching it writhe and bleed to death, or sticking an electric prod up its ass and electrocuting it, if the fur or skin is of value…

I wouldn’t want to make you “lose your lunch”, but these are the common practices perpetuated by the factory farm industry on millions of animals a day, in the name of your breakfast lunch and dinner. And, no, I’m not simply talking about pigs, but also cows, chickens, turkey, horses (that’s right horses. Everyday), and fish. Everyday, our species participates in the mass genocide of other species without care or concern or even questioning whether the violence that we ingest and condone plays any role in our apathetic support of the war machine we have become. How is it that we as human beings can represent both the highest and most developed and lowest and least concerned forms of intelligence of any living species? Are we simply glued to age-old barbaric traditions that cloud our senses and render us inhumane in our dependence on comfort foods and practices?

[W]e all identify with the teachings of Gandhi, the genius of Einstein, the art of Leonardo Da Vinci, Picasso, Rembrandt and the talent and compassion of living artists like Alice Walker, Will Smith, The Mars Volta, Dead Prez, Prince and countless others. Some of us choose to emulate their styles, their fashion, their career choices, but why not their diets?

Perhaps the biggest issue at hand is not what our cars run on, but essentially what do we run on?

Basically if we shifted our compassion towards animals, the domino effect would heal the planet. We’d no longer be cutting down rain forests to create more space for cows to graze, we’d stop depleting the ocean of the necessary (keyword: necessary) food chains that our eco system depends on, diseases including many cancers, heart disease, obesity, and others which find their root in the food/toxins we ingest would slowly disappear as would our taste for violence."

To fill yourself up on some more thought provoking ideas check out Saul's full letter here.

Well, you've heard what Saul thinks. What do you think? Post a comment and let us know.

RANT ALERT!

I find all animals beautiful, whether it's the majestic African elephant, the playful red squirrel or a lipstick red bummed Baboon, they are all exquisite to me (well, it could be suggested that in polite society baboons wear underpants). For people to announce they love animals whilst tucking into a plate of dead ones is a glaringly obvious contradiction. If you love animals, why would you eat them?

The only things you'll be missing out on a veg diet are things like cancer and heart disease. In the many years I have been vegetarian I have never suffered from the dreaded 'A' (anemia) and being veg has been too easy!

Eat animals, increase your risk of cancer, heart disease, destroy the planet OR be healthy, care for the planet and give true meaning to the phrase 'animal lover'!

Kicking ass across the country, Caliban's Australian tour was a blast. With horror-show outfits and enough German metal to make any metal-head drool, this was one tour you wouldn't want to take your Gran to.

While these guys gored it up on stage (bloodied outfits and all), offstage they're as horrified by animal cruelty as just about anyone. We first met up with the band after they'd spent the day at a wildlife reserve, checking out some Aussie inhabitants (of the animal variety). Marc and Andy quickly fessed up to being big into animals, no wonder they're both veg.

After letting the Unleashed team romp around the East Coast with their crew, we gotta say a big hoorah to Caliban for helping us get the word out about how we can all stop animal cruelty.

Can't wait for these guys to grace our shores again!

Did you catch Caliban doing their thing? Drop us a line and let us know: What was your highlight?

Here’s a bit of a laugh. Many of you will remember Sam Neil making a brain-dead buffoon of himself when he starred (or rather dimmed) in Meat and Livestock Australia’s ads where he suggested humans needed meat to be smart. Perhaps Sam didn’t check out our list of brainiac vegetarians before he signed up to make a fool of himself. If he had, we would have realised that Einstein, Pythagoras, Da Vinci, Plato, Socrates, Newton (and the list goes on) were all vegetarians.

Anyway, this video posted on YouTube by VeggieVidz and starring a younger, and perhaps wiser Sam Neil, who sets the record straight.

When I think of My Chemical Romance, I think of big band, big sound, big show. And when these guys stormed our shores they didn't disappoint. And nor did their fans ... check this super human costume effort (from the Melbourne show):

Hehehe ... ahem ... oh yeah, back to the show:

As if the music and packed crowds weren't enough to heat things up the pyrotechnics certainly added one helluva spark. The band were all in great form, but I have to say Frank Iero was my highlight ... but then maybe I'm a little biased.

Frank is almost as well known for his big heart as he is for his gift with the guitar. Being a vegetarian and supporter of anything to help the animals Frank was kind enough to let us unleash our tabling crew once more to join them on the tour.

Stylin it up, exploding on stage and helping animals is all just in a day's work for Frank. You may or may not have as much style as Frank (I certainly don't.); and you may or may not be a guitar hero (I'm certainly not!); but you can certainly help animals today. So let's change the world!